Michał Biarda

Location and Scenery: I live in Valencia, Spain, a city with a beautiful sea and a long, sandy beach lined with palm trees. The beach here is wide enough that even on the busiest days, there’s always space for everyone. Valencia also has mountains nearby, which adds to its charm. Right now, I live in the city center, but I’m planning to move to the suburbs soon to enjoy a calmer area.

Special Skills: Bug-Smasher Extraordinaire. I’m a full-stack developer (or a one-man army), so I work on both front-end and back-end projects, though I specialize more in back-end. My superpower? Smashing bugs. I love diving into buggy, legacy code that others might avoid. Finding the root cause of a nasty bug and fixing it is incredibly satisfying!

Fun Fact: I have a few fun facts!

1. Bronze Medalist in Footbag: I used to compete in footbag, which is a more technical and sporty version of hacky sack. I won a bronze medal in the World Championships, multiple gold medals in the Polish Championships, and a silver in the European Championships. I haven’t played in years, but I was really passionate about it for a decade.
2. Published Author: I’ve self-published four novels, and I’m finishing my fifth. One of my books is even translated into English! I read about 25 books a year, and I make it a habit to read for at least 30 minutes before bed.
3. TikToker: I started a TikTok account earlier this year to share funny takes on books, and it’s grown to over 14,000 followers. My account isn’t just about my books—I also talk about others I’ve read, always adding a comedic twist. I even had people recognize me at a book fair in Warsaw this year, which was such a cool experience.
4. 100% Success Rate at Interviews: I've only been interviewed for new jobs twice, and was hired both times. My job history looks short on LinkedIn, but my years of experience are long.

Favorite Tool or Tech: I couldn’t work without PHPStorm—it’s my cockpit for everything I do. I also use ChatGPT Pro daily for coding, debugging, brainstorming, and even tackling tricky challenges.

What do you like to do to unwind outside of work? I love reading novels, playing football (or soccer, as it's called in the US), and hanging out with my local football group in Valencia. Playing FIFA used to be my thing, but now I get to live out my football dream on the pitch twice a week! I also enjoy playing Minecraft with my son on Saturdays—it’s become our special dad-and-son time.

Favorite part of being an Otter? I love how we focus on quality at SwiftOtter. It’s refreshing to work in an environment where the leadership pushes us to do everything top-notch, even if it means taking a breath during crunch times. We’re small but mighty, and I hope we stay that way—achieving big things as a tight-knit team.

Short Bio: I’m a proud husband to Agata and father to Max. My journey in programming started when I was just 14, inspired by my dad's hobby of creating programs long before Windows was a thing! My career has been spent in just two companies: first with a Polish eCommerce agency, where I grew from their first developer to CTO, and now with SwiftOtter. I reached out to Joseph during COVID, and the next day, I was offered a role—a decision I’m so glad I made.